A Blog by Jonathan Low

 

Sep 7, 2019

Love 'Em and Lose 'Em: The Reality of Airpod Angst

They're popular. And small. And expensive. And people are starting to lose them. Alot of them. JL

Rachel Feintzeig reports in the Wall Street Journal:

AirPods, the $159 wireless headphones from Apple are sold as an airy, liberating, wire-free experience. But like other gadgets, they have for some become an emotional burden and pain in the wallet.They are slippery, small and easily pop out of ears. Popularity is skyrocketing, three years after their launch. So are the losses. 25 workers from New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority comb subway tracks for lost objects each day. For years, they picked up baby pacifiers, even dentures. Then everybody got AirPods. The MTA is weighing a public service announcement urging commuters to refrain from taking AirPods on or off while entering or exiting trains.
For months, Danny Shea suffered a low-level anxiety that finally lifted in June as he boarded a flight from Munich.
His left AirPod tumbled from his ear and fell, forever gone, to the runway below. “I actually felt free,” the 34-year-old startup executive said.
Since losing his right earbud this year, Mr. Shea had been carefully shepherding the left one until its dive to the tarmac. Now, he said, “I’m back to holding the phone to my ear, which seems primitive. But, hey, it works.”
AirPods, the $159 wireless headphones from Apple Inc., are sold as an airy, liberating, wire-free experience. But like other modern gadgets, they have for some become an emotional burden and pain in the wallet.
The devices of modern life deliver connectivity and constant pressure. Smartphones, beyond incessant demands for attention, must be synced, silenced or charged. Careful, don’t drop it! Where’s my phone?!
AirPods add to the jitters. The sleek white apostrophes that resemble electric toothbrush heads are slippery, small and easily pop out of ears. Popularity is finally skyrocketing, three years after their launch. So are the losses.An Apple spokeswoman said AirPods can be located using the iPhone app, Find my iPhone. Yet knowing where they are isn’t always good enough.
Terri Gerstein will never go back to wearing a tether between her ear and phone. That’s why she fashioned a tool from a broom and duct tape to retrieve one of her AirPods that plunged through a Brooklyn sidewalk grate.
The pod hunt was successful but left her shaken. “I felt like I don’t deserve them. I’m not careful enough. I don’t deserve something so nice,” said Ms. Gerstein, who directs a workplace-law program at Harvard Law School.
Anna Madison, a 23-year-old server, conducted a salvage operation this year using dental floss and a magnetic Juul electronic cigarette charger.
I could see it looking at me, like taunting me,” she said of her fallen AirPod, also trapped beneath a sidewalk grate. Feeling a mix of “stupidity and despair,” Ms. Madison, who lives in Queens, looked up the cost of a single replacement AirPod, $69, and vowed to recover hers.
She looped a length of floss through holes in the e-cig charger, lowered it into the grate and retrieved the earbud with magnetic force.
Sometimes, it takes a village. As many as 25 workers from New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority comb subway tracks for lost objects each weekday. For years, they picked up baby pacifiers, mail, even dentures. Then everybody got AirPods for Christmas.
“They’re tiny. They’re hard to find,” said Steven Dluginski, an MTA maintenance supervisor. Given the darkened tracks where they drop, he said, “the only saving grace is that they’re white.”
AirPod rescues from New York City subway tracks ramped up in March, when Apple released a new version, Mr. Dluginski said. This summer has been the worst, possibly because the heat and humidity on subway platforms makes the ears and hands of New Yorkers pretty sweaty, he guessed.
Transit workers use a pole that extends to about 8 feet and has two rubber cups on the end that can be squeezed together to grab small objects. The “picker-upper thing,” Mr. Dluginski called it.
Around noon on a recent Thursday, Mr. Dluginski’s team had received 18 requests to fetch lost items. Six were for AirPods. “It’s job security, as far as we’re concerned,” the maintenance boss said.
Riders who try to retrieve earbuds from subway tracks can cause annoying delays. Such rogue missions also can be dangerous. The MTA is weighing a public service announcement urging commuters to refrain from taking AirPods on or off while entering or exiting trains, said Sarah Meyer, chief customer officer for New York City’s transit system.
Passenger Ashley Mayer recently live-tweeted a track rescue in a lull between passing trains. One photo, featuring the caption “game on,” showed her purchasing a broom and duct tape. She used the contraption to nab the AirPod from the tracks, which can be dotted with rats. After cleaning the earbud, she polled Twitter followers about putting it back in her ear. Half said, Sure, go ahead.
Apple Chief Tim Cook announced “phenomenal demand” for AirPods during the company’s recent investor call. Apple doesn’t break out profitability for the ear pieces, which are lumped with sales of Apple watches and other wearable accessories.
“When you tally up the last four quarters, our wearables business is now bigger than 60% of the companies in the Fortune 500,” Mr. Cook said.
Your loss is their gain. Gene Munster, founding partner at investment and research firm Loup Ventures, estimated that 50 million AirPods would be sold in 2019, up from 28 million last year. A key sales driver is that they are so easy to lose, Mr. Munster said. He has gone through 10 pairs.
“I’ve already lost the charging case” of his latest set, he said.
Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has a commercial agreement to supply news through Apple services.
Meghan Biernacki hasn’t taken her AirPods out of the charging case since recovering them in July. She had tried to adjust an earbud while watching “The Price is Right” on a Delta flight, and away it bounced.
After the plane landed, a five-person cleaning crew, a flight attendant and a pilot worked to extricate the ear piece from beneath a seat cushion. Ms. Biernacki said it was hidden among candy wrappers, ChapStick tubes and some “really gross stuff.”
On a flight from Atlanta to New York, Troy Merritt was listening to music on his old-school Bose headphones when an AirPod from a neighboring passenger plopped into his lap.
Twice more the man’s AirPod fell from his ear, prompting the passenger to search on hands and knees during descent, defying orders to stay seated.
“The look on the guy’s face was pure panic,” Mr. Merritt said.

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